Pope Benedict's former archdiocese of Munich today insisted he had no knowledge of a 1980 decision to reassign a priest undergoing therapy there for suspected paedophilia to a post with access to children.Archdiocesan spokesman Bernhard Kellner dismissed as speculation a New York Times article that the fact the-then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was copied in on a memo of the transfer meant he was informed of what went on.
"We stand by our account that Cardinal Ratzinger didn't know about this decision," Mr Kellner said. "I cannot confirm he knew about this, and we don't have any evidence to that effect."
The priest, Rev Peter Hullermann, was identified earlier this month after a newspaper reported that he had been moved from northern Germany to Munich in 1980 for therapy for suspected paedophilia, but was soon put to work with youths. Six years later he was convicted of molesting a boy at another parish.
Pope Benedict, archbishop of Munich in 1980, oversaw the decision to transfer the priest at that time to Munich for therapy, Mr Kellner said.
However, the Vatican has denied the pope knew of the priest's reassignment to youth work in Bavaria.
The pope's then vicar general, Father Gerhard Gruber, took full responsibility earlier this month for the decision to reinstate Hullermann, who has since been suspended from his priestly duties.
"It was the decision of Gerhard Gruber, and he admitted his mistake," Mr Kellner told Reuters.
"(Pope Benedict) did not decide to make this man a spiritual counsellor."
Mr Kellner said the New York Times account was accurate but "there is not one single piece of new information in the article." Copying the memo detailing the decision to the office of the archbishop was routine procedure, he said.
"An archbishop doesn't read all the administrative acts. He just can't. That's why he has a vicar general," he added. "Gruber had 100 percent administrative control."
The Munich archdiocese said on Wednesday that new sexual abuse allegations had been made against Hullermann, whose case had been forwarded to the prosecutor's office.
In a statement, the Church said it met with possible victims and that Hullermann was alleged to have abused a minor in 1998 when he worked in Garching, near Munich.
The archdiocese also said that Garching and Bad Toelz, the two towns where Hullermann had worked, had appointed independent lay ombudsmen to examine any new allegations of abuse.
The latest Times report followed an article yesterday that revealed the Vatican did not defrock a US priest accused of sexually abusing up to 200 deaf boys in Milwaukee from the 1950s to the 1970s.
A Vatican spokesman explained that church laws did not require automatic punishment and that civil authorities dropped their investigation into allegations of his abuse in 1974.
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